I suppose that I am no different than any other outdoorsman in that I count a flashlight as a vital part of my gear. And, like you, I am always looking for a more powerful, compact, rechargeable flashlight. At the SHOT Show this year I discovered the ASP XT DF flashlight (Armament Systems & Procedures XT Duel Fuel), which is going to become my go-to flashlight. Having a dysfunctional flashlight in a crisis can be life threatening, whether you have a bear come into camp at night, are packing out in the dark or broke down and working on your truck.
I remember once my buddy Shawn Lee had packed our elk camp into the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness Area on his pack string. I couldn’t make it until a day later so I took off after work and got to the trail head after dark, loaded the rest of my gear in my backpack and took off down the narrow trail.
Not far down the trail, my main flashlight broke and I ended up hiking the last three miles with the aid of only a little rinky-dink light. Not fun in bear, wolf, cougar and moose country. Much less while trying to not tumble off the trail into the river below. The year before, we’d had two horses and a mule roll off in this same stretch.
As I’ve gotten older, I only use good flashlights. I could give a million more examples of disasters like above due to dysfunctional flashlights, but you get my drift, which is why I was excited to meet the ASP crew at the SHOT Show this year and get to test the ASP XT DF flashlight.
There are a few things I look for in a flashlight. Anymore, I like rechargeable lights. The better flashlights all seem to use expensive batteries nowadays, so you’ll go broke buying batteries if you use your flashlight much. Buy rechargeable ones. The ASP XT DF flashlight comes with four attachments that allow you charge it in your truck or at home in a wall socket. One is especially unique in that it is a retractable cord that helps keep it compact and prevents it from being a tangled mess like most of my cords become. And on top of this, the ASP XT DF flashlight comes with a canvas carrying case.
The ASP XT DF flashlight has five settings: max, high, medium, low and strobe. It runs on one 18650 battery or it can also run on two C1234A rechargeable batteries. It has two O-ring seals so it is water resistant.
It is the perfect-sized light for my standards. Not too big to be uncomfortable to carry but also not too small to be able to meet all of my needs.
If you’re like me and spend a lot of time in the backcountry, then I’d recommend buying a double set of the rechargeable C1234A batteries for backup. Or another option is to get a solar charging panel and carry it along. And, with the solar panel, you can also charge your GPS, camera and other electronic gear.
And one last feature that might interest a lot of you is that it also has a reversible pocket clip. In the ASP XT DF flashlight, you get a lot of quality and options packed into a small package for the MSRP of $160. Or you can go the cheap route like Indiana Jones and carry a torch and pray that the wind doesn’t kick up and blow it out.
Tom Claycomb lives in Idaho and has outdoors columns in newspapers in Alaska, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Colorado and Louisiana.
